# yclept
## English
### Etymology

* PIE word
* *ḱóm
From Middle English yclept, ycleped, iclept [and other forms] (i-, y- (prefix forming past participles) + clepen (“to say, speak, utter; to call, shout; to name; to address; to appeal to, beg, pray; to ask, request; to appear; to send for, summon; to convene; to call forth, induce; to lay claim”) + -ed, -t (suffix forming past participles of weak verbs)), from Old English ġeclypod, ġeclipod (ġe- (suffix forming past participles or participle adjectives) + clypian, clipian (“to call out, cry; to appeal”) (West Saxon) [and other forms] + -od (suffix forming past participles)). Clipian is derived from Proto-Germanic *klipjaną, *klapjaną (“to be noisy; to chatter”), probably related to *klappōną (“to clap, pound, or strike (especially two things against each other); to make loud noises, especially breathing or pulsating; to chatter”), and ultimately onomatopoeic. Doublet of clap.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ɪˈklɛpt/, /-ˈkliːpt/, (poetic) /ɪˈkliːpɪd/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ɪˈklɛpt/
* Rhymes: -ɛpt

### Adjective

yclept (not comparable)
* (archaic, poetic or humorous) Called (by a certain name), named.
    Synonym: hight
** c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC,, lines 236–237 and 240–241:And as I am a Gentleman, betooke my ſelfe to walke: the time When? about the ſixt houre, […] Now for the ground Which? which I meane I walkt vpon, it is ycliped Thy Park.
** a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 31:But com thou Goddes fair and free, / In Heav'n ycleap'd Euphrosyne, […]
** 1663 (indicated as 1664), [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 106:There is a tall long-sided Dame, / (But wondrous light) ycleped Fame, / That like a thin Camelion Bourds / He[r] self on Air, and eats her words: […]
** 1687, A[phra] Behn, The Emperor of the Moon. A Farce. […], London: […] R. Holt, for Joseph Knight, and Francis Saunders, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 21:Upon a winged Horſe, Icliped Pegaſus, / Swift as the fiery Racers of the Sun, / ——I fly——I fly—— / See how I mount, and cut the liquid Sky.
** 1749, Henry Fielding, “A Dreadful Alarm in the Inn, with the Arrival of an Unexpected Friend of Mrs. Fitzpatrick”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XI, page 160:[T]here arrived in the Room where the two Ladies were ſitting, a Noiſe, […] more like (for what Animal can reſemble a human Voice) to thoſe Sounds, which, in the pleaſant Manſions of that Gate, which ſeems to derive its Name from a Duplicity of Tongues, iſſue from the Mouths, and ſometimes from the Noſtrils of thoſe fair River Nymphs, ycleped of old the Napææ, or the Naïades; […]
** 1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Shewing How Profound Secrets are Strangely Brought to Light; […]”, in A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, […], →OCLC, book VI, page 86:Sometimes in consequence of some flagrant villany, he would abscond from the garrison, […] squatting himself down on the edge of a pond catching fish for hours together, and bearing no little resemblance to that notable bird ycleped the Mud-poke.
** 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “The Praise of Chimney-Sweepers”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 251:There is a composition, the ground-work of which I have understood to be the sweet wood ’yclept sassafras.
** 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 276:The shortest path from the Hollow to the Rectory wound near a certain mansion, […]—the old and tenantless dwelling yclept Fieldhead.
** 1863, Frances Anne Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839, London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, →OCLC, page 176:The damsel, ycleped Louisa, made rather a shame-faced obeisance, and her old grandmother went on to inform me that she had only lately been forgiven by the overseer for an attempt to run away from the plantation.
** 1907, Barbara Baynton, “Human Toll”, in Sally Krimmer, Alan Lawson, editors, Barbara Baynton: Bush Studies, Other Stories, Human Toll, Verse, Essays and Letters (Portable Australian Authors; UQP Australian Authors), St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 147:No schoolboys lingered round Bob Robertson's (yclept Roberson's) blacksmith's shop, for this sleepy day no lusty throat bellowed attention to the flaming tongues fanned from its bloodily blazing teeth; no luminous stars flinted from the clanking anvil.
** 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 369:And there came against the place as they stood a young learning knight yclept Dixon.
** 1967 July, Roy Thomas, The Avengers, volume 1, number 42, New York, N.Y.: Marvel Comics, →OCLC, page 6:In sooth, I care but little for the glory of closing in combat with the one yclept Dragon Man.
** 1987, Kurt Vonnegut, Bluebeard: […], New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 229:The second puzzle was this: why were the vast rectangles between the encircling columns at ground level blank? How could any art patron have left them bare? When I saw them, they were painted the palest rose-orange, not unlike the Sateen Dura-Luxe shade yclept "Maui Eventide."
** 2001, Glen David Gold, chapter 3, in Carter Beats the Devil […], New York, N.Y.: Hyperion, →ISBN, page 174:World traveling sorcerer supreme Charles Carter, yclept Carter the Mysterious, has made a startling discovery that makes the news from Europe seem mild indeed. The Japanese have a horrifying secret weapon: a means of propelling their infantry through solid matter.

#### Usage notes

While most forms of the verb clepe are obsolete, yclept is still occasionally used as an adjective or verb for humorous or archaic effect; as in the set phrase aptly yclept.

#### Alternative forms

* ycleped

#### Trivia

A holdover from Middle English, yclept is one of a small number of English words where y figures as a vowel at the beginning of a word. Others include Yngling, ytterbium, and yttrium.

### Verb

yclept
* past participle of clepe

### References

* ↑ “i-, pref.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “clēpen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “-(e)d, suf.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ Compare “yclept | ycleped, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “yclept, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.